Rapid Agricultural Produce Indirect Dryer (RAPID).

Did you know that a third of the food produced in the world is lost or wasted according to  Food and Agriculture Organistion (FAO) representing a loss of 13 billion tons of food per year? Majority of this is estimated to be in sub Saharan Africa with significant volumes of food lost after harvest, the value of which is estimated at USD 4 billion for grains alone.

To shed more light on the gravity of the matter, this magnitude of food loss exceeds the value of total food aid received in Sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade and further equates to the annual value of cereal imports to Sub-Saharan Africa. This grave problem lying under one of the core focus areas of ResilientAfrica Network(RAN), they made a call for innovations under the Resilience Innovation Challenge (Resilience Innovation Challenge 4 Adverse Climate Effects).

It is under  Challenge a team of four academics Dr. Nyenje, Swaib, Ali and Robinah (Full names and honors to be included) from Makerere University came up with the idea of Rapid Agricultural Produce Indirect Dryer, RAPID for short. ”Ali had the of improving the drying of harvested agricultural produce which we found to be very interesting  because it addresses the aspect of food security and affects majority of the Ugandan population most of which are directly engaged in agriculture.” Said Robinah the team leader.

She further added “I undertake my grocery shopping from Kalerwe market, while there I noticed a lot of Fresh agricultural produce ranging from vegetables, fruits and foods such as cassava, bananas, potatoes etc. I wondered about what happens eventually to this produce if not bought? Given that it is fresh produce and hence perishable I just concluded that there must be great loss subsequently. Also given that I have friends who are currently growing and exporting pineapples, they had expressed their desire to have these fruits dried in the shortest time possible so that they could export them. So the idea of drying in order to prolong the life of this produce but also add value became a reality.”

RAPID which is implemented through the drying process by concentrating more solar energy in a controlled environment so that the drying of the produce is rapid and also the produce is a better quality.
 

Proposed prototype

 It is through this implementation using cheap and locally available materials that the team was successfully awarded a grant from ResilientAfrica. They have also undertaken various activities with ResilientAfrica Network(RAN) which include prototyping and testing and also need finding in various communities.

It is from these ResilientAfrica Network(RAN) activities that the team notes that being at the initial stage they have not faced any major challenges but anticipate  a few like time limitation and reducing the cost of the solar dryer so that it is affordable to most farmers.

However it keeps them going knowing that they will be able to contribute to the resilience of vulnerable communities  through having faster and efficient drying of agricultural produce  which will reduce post-harvest losses and better quality and prolonged shelf life of  dried produce. This will in turn increase food security, market resilience and increase house hold income which will render communities to be more resilient to climate variability.

 The Team hopes that once they have successfully built the innovation to completion they can establish partnerships with National agricultural institutions like  National Agricultural Research Organistion (NARO),National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS),Ministry of Agriculture and the private sector as venture capitalists. 

AS they are at the initial stage, the insightful activities they have done with RAN are the notes to be part of their success and they hope to achieve more  using indicators like Quality of produce, drying time, the quantity dried at a time and acceptability by the intended users. It is with this evaluation that they are confident they will be able to obtain massive demand and mass production to make the dryer affordable for farmers. They also hope to successfully transfer the technology to many farmers for their own production all in the next three years.

“RAPID is a technology that can actually be utilized by other innovators like the mushroom and maize groups for drying of their produce to the desired moisture content.” Robinah said in relation to other great innovations Under ResilientAfrica Network.

Compiled by Communications and Engagement Department ResilientAfrica Network(RAN)
(Achiro Jennifer, Byomuhangi Owen,Musisi Henry, Nalunga Winnie and Nuwagaba Kenneth )